I don’t even think the bodycount will matter. What would probably matter is worse symptoms for a higher percentage of people. And yeah, I know that coronavirus is ugly. But most people, especially the young, recover. People do not understand probability and even if coronavirus is the likeliest thing to kill them this year, it’s not all that likely.
Basically a lot of idiots who wouldn’t bet their lives against decent amount of cash that you couldn’t pull out the A and K of spades drawing two cards from the deck are willing to bet their lives to go to the hairdresser when the odds are greater of them dying.
The reason the bodycount will matter IMO is just that the higher it goes the more people lose a loved one. Very few Americans give a flying fuck if 100K or 1M or 10M people die if they don’t know any of them. But if one person dies in their family, they’ll care. The higher the number goes, the more people will care… and eventually when people see more people caring, they will realize, “Hey, this is a thing that may impact me directly soon.”
The same thing basically happened in the leadup to the ACA passing. You heard more and more stories about people dying due to lack of healthcare or going bankrupt from a medical problem, and we hit critical mass on getting the political will to get something done. We have to have a certain amount of suffering in this country before 51% can be bothered to care about others.
Major US airlines not enforcing face mask policies
Airline passengers dropped by 51% in the US in March
The top three US airlines have told flight attendants not to enforce a policy requiring passengers to wear face masks.
United, Delta and American Airlines all have policies which state that customers should cover their faces, and employees have been told they may deny boarding at the gate to customers who do not follow them.
However, once on board the plane flight crew have been been advised by the airlines that they should simply encourage passengers to follow the policies, rather than enforce them.
Airline passengers dropped by 51% in the US in March, resulting in the lowest air travel level in almost 20 years, according to the US Transportation Department.
Canada has asked the US to extend the ban on non-essential travel cross the border until June, two government sources told Reuters news agency.
A 30-day ban was put in place on 21 March, and renewed until the end of May. A second 30-day extension would keep the border shut to tourists, visitors and other non-essential travellers until 21 June.
Sources told the news agency the US was likely to agree.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said talks with the US were “going well".
Canada’s chief public health officer said the number of cases in the US presents "a risk to Canada”.
Yup, but in my experience even when I explain this to friends, they get concerned for like 30 seconds, then they rationalize it away… They just don’t think people would hide this from us, or that people would be out and about if it were true. Then they very badly don’t want it to be true, so it must not be true.
This seems to be a matter of some debate if you look at the literature. It’s not clear if it will go to your lungs through ingestion and no one has really shown evidence of it. There seems to be universal advice not to touch your mouth, but that seems to be a matter of the experts covering their bases (plus it’s good to not touch your mouth in general).
Like do you guys think none of the food safety experts thought of these sorts of things when they deemed takeout food safe?
Stop. You’re being ignorant or disingenuous. This thing can go places other than your lungs and cause serious problems. We’re not just trying to keep it out of our lungs.
I don’t know, man, I really don’t. I mean, we’re told it’s good to eat a certain amount of beef and dairy, basically because Iowa and New Hampshire vote first and there’s lots of beef and dairy in those states. We were told no masks, we were told 6 feet, we were told it could only spread through droplets and not aerosolized, and on and on.
So far, every step of the way with COVID-19, it was correct to be way more cautious than we were told, due to a combination of a lack of understanding and being lied to.
I also agree 100% with JT that the assumptions being made on safety precautions being followed in restaurant kitchens, delivery drivers and customers are just hilariously bad. Maybe 5% of people in each situation are following them. Maybe 50-60% are following some. 40-50% are probably mask-free in the kitchen, mask-free delivery, etc… Probably more people are spitting in food for shits and giggles than are following all precautions.
Reminds me of an interaction I had with a delivery driver the other night. He goes to put on his mask as he’s rolling up, sees me and goes “oh, you dont care do you?”
And I said yea, I do care, but it’s kind of pointless for the last 3 seconds of this transaction now that you havent done it at all.
Yeah like when the maintenance guy came in, the first time he wore a mask properly, the second time it didn’t cover his nose - and they had two guys come in to touch up a couple spots that needed paint from the great bathroom flood. Like, it was a one guy job. They could have left me some paint and I could have done it. The second guy, of course, had no mask.
One problem with this, too, is the delayed onset. People aren’t good at processing that mentally. They just refuse to accept that if they feel good they could still have it. They accept that it is the case overall, but they all think they know their own bodies or some shit.
I get it, I was nervous for a day or two after the maintenance guys were here, then I felt like, “OK, I’m fine, I don’t have it.” I knew I was bullshitting myself, and it’s not like it made a difference in my precautions, so being less worried was a good thing anyway… but it’s just hard for people to act like they have it when they feel fine.
The food safety experts do not have a vested interest in saying NOTHING TO SEE HERE like all the political officials and their underlings that consistently undershot the risks.
Do you think if all of these food safety experts, whose livelihoods depend on their credibility and who have every reason to be more cautious than less if there were any tangible gain to be had from increased safety, were misquoted regarding the nature of their general consensus that they wouldn’t lash out at these attributions?
C’mon guys, who appointed the heads of the CDC, FDA and USDA? Who do they report to? How accurate have they been overall with this? How transparent? Are you guys forgetting stories about attempts by the CDC and the coronavirus task force to hide information from the public and/or distort it?
This reads somewhat like anti-vaxxer fanfic. Of course scientists constantly test to confirm hypotheses and build upon an existing knowledge base. The point is that a knowledge base does exist regarding coronaviruses, which I admit doesn’t mean COVID will react exactly the same way, and scientific consensus (evolving to be sure) should prevail over the sensibilities of the self-described highly informed non-experts’ opinions.
I have mostly stopped worrying like that. I was for a while - like, my allergies are acting up and i have sniffles, sore throat, watery eyes, coughing, the whole deal.
I won’t go out obviously since I’m like this and dont know for sure it’s allergies but it’s not enough to send me into a full blown panic anymore. I’ve pretty much accepted that I’m gonna get it.